Lenovo’s Yoga 9i gets a new name but is relatively unchanged from last year. The Lenovo Yoga 9i series is a successor to the formidable Yoga C940 series, available in both 14- and 15-inch models. With the new, tidier naming scheme comes a bump up to Intel’s 11th Gen hardware and Intel Evo platform certification, improved TrueStrike keyboard, optional leather lid cover, and edge-to-edge glass touchpad, Thunderbolt 4 ports, and more. Read on the following Lenovo Yoga 9i review to learn more.
Contents
Lenovo Yoga 9i Review
1. Price and availability
The Lenovo Yoga 9i is available now in the US and UK, with an Australian release coming soon but no specific date is set at this time. The base model of the Yoga 9i comes with an 11th-generation Intel i5-1135G7 CPU with Iris Xe graphics, 8GB RAM, 256GB PCIe SSD, and a 14-inch full HD touchscreen for $1,299/£1,199, and likely around AU$1,800 when it releases in Australia.
Upgrade the specs and the price understandably climbs, but not out of line with expectations. For example, the highest-spec configuration available right now in the US will get you an 11th-generation Intel i7-1185G7 with Iris Xe, 16GB RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, and a 14-inch 4K, HDR 400 display for $1,849.
In the UK, you can get all the above with a full HD screen for £1,649 and we don’t know yet what configurations are going to be available in Australia, but if they’re in line with the above, it’ll probably be around AU$2,750 on the high end, give or take AU$250.
2. Design and features
The Yoga 9i 14 hasn’t changed a lot physically compared to the C940 predecessor. The newer laptop weighs just a bit more but measures the same thickness. Width and depth have a mere millimeter shaved off — nothing really notable. With an all-metal build top and bottom, the 9i 14 is a near-flawless execution of Lenovo’s Yoga vision. The Mica finish on the aluminum hides fingerprints, lines are clean, and there are just enough rounded edges. The lid rotates 360 degrees on a soundbar hinge for excellent audio no matter how you’re using the laptop.
The soundbar has four total 2W speakers: two woofers and two tweeters. There’s more than enough volume to make other people in the same room uncomfortable, and there’s no distortion or buzzing at higher volume levels.
Because it’s positioned in the middle of the laptop, rotating the display around to tent, stand, or convertible modes keeps audio pointing in your direction.
The thinness of the laptop undoubtedly puts a restriction on some ports, but at least the 9i 14 didn’t lose any connectivity compared to the C940. Instead, the two Thunderbolt 3 ports were upgraded to Thunderbolt 4, the lone USB-A port was upgraded to 3.2 (Gen 2), and the 3.5mm audio jack remains the same.
If you’re a right-hander and want to use a wired mouse, the cable will have to snake across from the left side USB port, though Bluetooth 5.1 is included for wireless connectivity. For general wireless networking that is ready for the future, the laptop has Wi-Fi 6. No 4G or 5G connectivity is offered with the Yoga 9i 14.
3. Performance
Performance is where the Yoga 9i really, really shines – particularly the Iris Xe graphics. On all of our benchmarks but one, it beat out every other competing 2-in-1 and usually by a massive margin.
Only the Asus Vivobook Flip 14 scored a sizeable win over the Yoga 9i, and that was in our CinebenchR20 multicore benchmark where the Flip 14 scored 2,536 points to the Yoga 9i’s 1,975. Clearly, the Flip 14’s AMD Ryzen 7-4700U CPU is capable of some impressive multicore performance, but it’s not as cut-and-dry, since the Flip 14 got blown out by the Yoga 9i on Geekbench 5’s multi-core benchmark, 3,824 to 5,135.
As for the Yoga 9i’s Iris Xe graphics, there’s simply no comparison other than the Dell XPS 13, which runs the 11th-generation Intel i7-1165G7 processor, and the Yoga 9i still beats it in every one of our benchmarks though, sometimes, it’s a closer contest than it is with its 10th-gen Core i7 or Ryzen 7 competition.
When it comes to battery life, the Yoga 9i sweeps the field of any serious competition. Sure, the Lenovo Flex 5G’s battery lasted an average of 29 hours-plus, but it was only able to run the HD movie benchmark and its compatibility issues kept us from running all but Geekbench 5, and there the Yoga 9i scores are twice those of the Flex 5G’s.
4. Battery life
As an Evo-certified laptop, the Yoga 9i is said to last more than 9 hours on a charge. It met that mark, and then some, enduring for 11 hours and 15 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test (continuous Wi-Fi at 150 nits).
That excellent runtime outlasts the XPS 13 2-in-1 (10:53) and the category average (9:58) but falls to the Spectre x360 14 (12:11) in a nail-biter and loses to the MacBook Air (14:41) by a wider margin.
In conclusion, this is a detailed Lenovo Yoga 9i review for you. Hoping that you find it useful.